Examining the Power of Speaker Pelosi

it was 2007 when nancy pelosi broke one of the biggest glass ceilings in american politics when she earned this title madam speaker since then pelosi has become one of the republican party's favorite political targets but she has not taken it lying down you have called your republican colleagues right immoral corrupt you say they're running a criminal enterprise well actually when i called them those names i was being gentle there are much worse things i could have said about that as house speaker and the times house minority leader pelosi has played instrumental roles in some of the biggest issues of the past several decades helping obama to pass his affordable care act some think he helped her leading on her party's opposition to the war in iraq and initiating two impeachments of donald trump among the many political battles she waged against the former president and while she was able to stop trump in some places like blocking congressional funding for the border wall overriding his veto the annual defense authorization bill one area where she has no power and no vote has been supreme court confirmations with trump and his fellow republicans pushing through the controversial picks of justice's gorsuch kavanaugh and coney barrett over a chorus of democratic outcry but those are the exceptions pelosi's career influence and upbringing are the subject of a new frontline documentary it's called pelosi's power premieres tomorrow night it's also amazingly the first film to ever focus on pelosi's role as speaker joined by the man behind it director writer and producer michael kirk michael as always congratulations great to see you thank you jim so you start the film with uh the insurrectionists on january 6th both in the capitol and going to her office here's a little taste of what they were saying [Music] it was like a monster movie or like a horror film that was an intent to harm in the voices check this out we are inside her nancy pelosi's office [Music] you know it seems to me michael her reaction to this sort of a microcosm of all of uh pelosi never shaken uh just gets laser focused impeach and investigate that's nancy pelosi no she's she just seized power at that moment she was two heartbeats away from being president of the united states she figured she had a crazy president on her hands and she was going to stop him if she could so let's go back to the beginning uh her father is the tough guy mayor of baltimore d'alessandro i love the line when someone says she's more d'allesandro than pelosi i thought that was terrific but also i love this thing where she is in charge at age 11 of the so-called favor file in her father's office what's the favor file so what would happen is people would line up outside the row house where uh tommy d'alessandro lived with nancy she was the youngest child the only girl five brothers and it was her job with her mom big nancy to uh people would come in and they would ask for a favor i got to get out of jail i got to get a new apartment my car's you know been stolen whatever it is and it's ward politics at the street level and the mayor would say yes okay we'll take care of that or nancy would say he will take care of that and she would keep the favor file and the favor file was something that then when tommy needed something you could bet there'd be a knock on your door and and the mayor would call the chit do so that's what the favor file was and nancy has had it in her back pocket the rest of her life right age 11 is why that is so significant so we're going to fast forward a little bit to 2008 the financial crisis she goes to john boehner the republican leader and says i need a hundred votes this has to be 100 republican votes to go with ours so that it's a bipartisan effort to bail out the banks which obviously is popular with nobody in america except the banks what happens she uh now remember it's hard for democrats to take this vote this is supporting banks scoundrels people have wasted this money she goes to boehner it's her first real uh bipartisan effort and she says all right i'm going to do it it's tough to get my people to do it but i'm going to make them take the vote and they do and it they lose anyway and she could have cut deals on behalf of the democrats but she thought she was doing the right thing jumping off the cliff together with boehner what she discovered was she said her daughter said she said uh you can't trust republicans we're never going to cooperate with them again and that obviously informed her position well on everything but particularly on the affordable care act where some voice in your movie talks about the naivete of barack obama to think he could get republicans in they all came from meetings they all extended the discussions never bought in and i think it's fair to say looking back that as i said the intimated in the introduction the affordable care act is law uh in larger part maybe because of nancy pelosi than because of the guy after which it is named is that fair rahm emanuel who's was obama's chief of staff and formerly had been her hit man when he was he he broke the knuckles and the kneecaps uh for nancy pelosi on the floor emanuel told me this is a nancy pelosi bill i'm speaking on behalf of the president of the united states when i tell you he would agree with this statement and what it was was she had been telling him from the get-go this is not a bipartisan world anymore brock i know you gave a great speech in 2004 but these people are not to be trusted and she basically said to him when they all got squishy in the knees after scott brown went up here and they lost their majority she said look you can go small mamby pamby she called it or you can go with me and i'll make it happen but if you don't go with me good luck and so that was the highlight they went with her the affordable care act becomes law and then 2010 comes along the midterms and the democrats lose their house i love this little piece this is diane sawyer interviewing pelosi after the loss and she asked pelosi if she was sad was the word like obama said he was after the loss here's the back and forth following that well it's sad in terms of my colleagues who won't be coming back for me i'm a professional you never felt it you didn't feel well i felt it for my colleagues i felt it for the american people we all stay talk to ourselves in moments when it feels bruised it feels rough well let me tell you when i get time for that i'll call you and i'll let you know how it feels thank god i didn't ask that question it's all i can say while i'm watching you too that is so pelosi is it not yes the ice there the stern look i'm a professional i don't take this stuff personally well she takes it personally i promise you but boy you don't ever get that for you're never going to get that from her you know a couple of things one her daughter in the film with you refers to her mother as nancy pelosi did you find that odd at all oh no not at all jim i mean it's a little like handshaking like wait a minute when are we there's the nancy pelosi by the way she had five children in six years you understood did you she she was bringing the baby home from the hospital for the sixth birthday of her oldest child this is a woman who knows how to organize things make the machine run she didn't have help she didn't have a nanny and uh and that daughter calls her nancy pelosi uh and that speaker of the house has on her desk i love this image chocolates and baseball bats from the san francisco giants sort of says everything so it's clear that pelosi has no time for liars or or for fools both of which she can she considered uh uh donald trump to be and her contempt i mean obviously she supported the opposition but her contempt came from that first meeting which she describes in painful detail the first words out of donald trump's mouth could you remind people what they were he he said he leans forward he's got all the congressional leaders in the room around the table she's the only as usual the only woman in the room and he leans forward and says you know i really won the election now there were five million illegal votes that were out there but otherwise i really won the election first meeting with republican and democratic leaders of congress after he's elected i really won the uh she in the in the film she imitates him leaning forward that's great yeah just hilarious right she's living the moment over and over and over again so there's a dreaded local angle to this too which we always love is there was some opposition the squad one of its four members is iana presley the congresswoman from boston seth moulton uh tried to lead a an overthrow of nancy pelosi what i'm not clear about i'm curious to hear what you think is this was that because of her ideas were out of date or because the three leaders of the democratic party were all octogenarians and people moulton presley at all felt that they needed younger faces atop the democratic hierarchy since 2010 after the affordable care act she becomes the target for the republican party she helps them raise hundreds of millions of dollars all they have to say is nancy pelosi now if you're seth moulton and it's 2018 and nancy pelosi has led the blue wave and it's all happening again you you you have heard you're in a you're you're you're in a fine district you're safe but a lot of the other moderates are on the margins and if nancy pelosi is such a target for all the other uh for the other candidates for your potential primary candidates even trump's got the republican party the last thing you really want you love her because you think she's wonderful in lots of other ways but the last thing those moderates wanted was nancy pelosi as the speaker of the house harming them when they went back home uh to be re-elected in two years michael i have only one minute left i i i don't know if i'm going to quarrel with your assessment of her first woman speaker most powerful woman in congress i would argue after seeing this film of yours and supreme revenge your another film of yours about mitch mcconnell in the supreme court that mitch mcconnell and nancy pelosi actually may have been the most powerful people not just congressional leaders in washington over the past couple of decades would you say i was off base or no well it's a it's it's hard to know but because of their continuity and because of their ability to climb and because of her ability to cause things to happen and his very different perspectives on how to exercise power but exercising it nonetheless i don't i don't know that i would i don't know that i would correct you on that jim she's she's been right in the in the room where it happens all along and so is he so um you i'll give you that thank you what about that on that note i'll give you yet another great film i learned a lot it was terrific michael congratulations great to see you thanks jim you too

Channel: GBH News

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Id: 61YJOAFgNy0

Length: 12min 7sec (727 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 21 2022